In some periods the star consultant received well over NOK 30,000 per day from the Norwegian aid budget. Norad believes he came to occupy more than one position around the table without informing them.
After taking stock of the last of a series of projects the US climate consultants have been involved in, it is difficult to point to any results either for the rainforests in low-income countries or for the people who live in them.
The costs are rather more conspicuous. Panorama has taken a closer look at the project called 'Operation Sunlight', where around 85 per cent of the almost NOK 70 million of aid money from Norad was spent on salaries and the purchase of consultancy services in the United States.
There are accusations of breach of agreement, lack of transparency regarding salaries and profits, invoicing for several thousands of hours with no documentation as to how they were spent, confusing company structures, and purchases worth several millions from 'closely related' companies. These are key flashpoints in a process which gradually developed into a heated argument and threats of legal action.
Between 2018 and 2020 Purvis was paid a salary of around NOK 12 million to lead the mainly Norad-funded, non-profit foundation, Climate Advisers Trust.
- This has been a serious matter with clear breaches of the agreement by Climate Advisers Trust. We have learnt a lot and will think very carefully before entering into that type of agreement again, where a commercial company has created a non-profit which is our contracting partner, says Bård Vegar Solhjell, Director General at Norad.
In 2021 Norad stopped all payments to Climate Advisers Trust and demanded a repayment of NOK 1.6 million because of «significant breaches of the agreement».
However, the parent company Climate Advisers Inc (CAI) continued to receive millions of kroner in funding from the Norwegian aid budget - via an agreement paid by the Ministry of Climate and the Environment (KLD).
Stoltenberg's forest initiative
The idea that Norwegian money could save the world's rainforests was born in December 2007, when the then Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, launched Norway's biggest ever international climate initiative. Norway was to spend NOK three billion annually from the aid budget to save the rainforests in low-income countries.
- This can result in big, quick and cheap reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases, said Stoltenberg to the VG newspaper at the time, before presenting Norway's strategy to the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali only three days later.
The idea was simple: countries with tropical forests were to be rewarded for not cutting them down. Stoltenberg quickly gained political support for the idea in Norway. Paying for reduced greenhouse gas emissions in rainforest countries with aid money was far cheaper than achieving similar results through emission cuts at home. Norway would be able to present itself as a pioneering country in climate politics without making too much of an effort as far as its own production of oil and gas was concerned. Internationally this was described as «the Norwegian paradox».
One of the architects behind the strategy, and Director of the Rainforest Foundation Norway at the time, was Lars Løvold:
- Climate was very high on the agenda in 2007. We spotted an opportunity, went straight to the politicians, and won through. Our proposal was for six billion annually. They gave us three. That is still a considerable amount, Løvold said to Panorama Nyheter.
In early 2008 a small team within the Ministry of Climate and the Environment was established. The department was given the acronym NICFI - Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative.
However, good intentions and NOK three billion were not sufficient to put a stop to deforestation. Obtaining sufficient, binding support from other wealthy countries and powerful international companies proved to be difficult. The NICFI team quickly realised that it was important to create momentum in the work to preserve tropical forests. Particularly in the United States.
And this was where the climate consultant Nigel Purvis and his Washington DC-based Climate Advisers Inc (CAI) appeared on the scene.
A daily rate of more than 30,000 kroner
In 2012, Purvis and his company were hired to give strategic advice to the team working on the forest initiative in the Ministry of Climate and the Environment (KLD).
The American had an impressive network and expertise.
For the Harvard-educated lawyer is not just any old climate consultant. He has a long and impressive CV, and worked on climate issues at a high level in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. He has also been affiliated to the renowned Brookings Institution.
In the same year as the start of the collaboration between KLD and CAI, a colleague wrote the following in a memo to the then Minister of Climate and the Environment, Bård Vegar Solhjell:
«Purvis is one of the brightest minds in American climate policy, and will be able to provide very useful perspectives for the Minister both in terms of US policy and on expanding Norway's opportunities for influence in the future. Purvis is also central to the group that has helped the Climate and Forest Initiative to develop the strategy for increased international support for the climate and forest case which the Minister has got behind».
For several years, Purvis, funded by Norwegian aid, participated in climate meetings and worked to build influence around the world. Panorama Nyheter has gained access to documents which show that Purvis charged an hourly rate of USD 639 in 2012, as well as in later years. The exchange rate has varied, but this is currently equivalent to a daily rate of more than NOK 30,000.
In 2017 he was paid NOK 4800 per hour from the Norwegian aid budget. That is equivalent to a daily fee of NOK 38,000 for an eight-hour working day.
Even if we take into consideration that this also includes allowances for social costs such as pensions etc. it is unusually expensive in an aid context.
The journal Development Today has on several occasions written about the high fees charged by Climate Advisers Inc. in 2016. At the time, KLD pointed out that the contract CAI had with KLD was won following an open competitive tendering process in accordance with EU regulations.
«Operation Sunlight»
In the spring of 2018 Norad received an application from the recently established foundation, Climate Advisers Trust (CAT). The foundation applied for a grant of more than NOK 100 million for a project which was given the name 'Operation Sunlight'. The name was not randomly chosen - according to the application, sunlight will contribute to transparency and visibility around investments contributing to deforestation.
CAT was established towards the end of 2017, i.e. just a few months before Norad received the application. The foundation had thus never previously been responsible for a project of that size.
Given the tough competition for Norwegian aid money, it is unusual for Norad to establish a collaboration with brand new foundations. However, this application was not quite like any other.
For the founder and CEO was none other than the star consultant, Nigel Purvis.
So even if Climate Advisers Trust was only recently established, Norad was quite familiar with Purvis and his commercial consulting company, Climate Advisers Inc.
The project for which CAT requested support in 2
